Group Decision on our film noir opening

In order to reach conclusions about our film noir opening, we meet up in our group to discuss ideas and answer any problems. Below are notes on what we discussed during our meetings:
Wednesday 7th January - Emily about locations for our film noir opening. We each took a copy of the first script draft from Josh and mentioned anything else we wanted to be included. We all discussed what shots should be used where in the script and finalised a list of individual pre-production tasks to be getting on with. As editor, I asked about when we wanted the titles to appear and we decided that the main title would go at the end and the personnel titles at the beginning. We also decided who would play each character and decided on Chris to be the main person.
Wednesday 14th January - Chris was finishing the storyboard whilst Emily produced a list of costumes and props we each needed to fetch, and discussed who would get each one. We also looked at what the main character would be wearing in each location (woods and in the dark room). We all went to go and look at our chosen location, Alexandra Park, to take pictures, look at where the main character would be running from and to think about where the camera could be positioned to get the best shots possible.
Thursday 22nd January - Chris scanned the finished draft of the storyboard into the computer to create an animatic. We each prepared something to say to the class in tomorrow's presentation speech (except I was off ill so I did mine at home).
Friday 23rd January - Did our speech to the rest of our media class and showed them our finished animatic. We answered any questions they gave us and considered their comments. One of the things someone mentioned was that it may be too much to film with too little time to show it all. We took this on board and will consider shortening the scrips and including less of our ideas to make it more simple, yet still with the same desired effect.
Wednesday 28th January - We finalised all our pre-production work and Josh asked if there were any issues we found with the script. Emily reminded us of what props and costumes we needed to bring in individually, and I suggested that we used a small glass block (which I have at home) if the college cafe couldn't supply any ice-cubes to us. I also took the questionnaire results away to write up an analysis on them, whilst Chris thought about what we would do in wet weather conditions. We decided that if it was rainy on the day of the shoot, we would have to take the camera kit out during the half term holidays, or film the following week. Or we could use an umbrella to shelter the camera , though this would limit our filming abilities and we doubt the media department would allow it, though the rainy effect would add to the atmosphere of our film! We all went to the colleg libaray during break to search for sound effects CD's that could us in our film. We took out 4 in total with footsteps, outdoor atmosphere noise, indoor atosphere noise and gunshots on each. We would listen to them tomorrow. ONLY 1 WEEK LEFT UNTIL OUR FILMING DAY - WEDNESDAY 4TH!
Thursday 29th January - Today we spilt up as a group as Emily and Josh remained in the media classroom to look over the pre-production work and finish a birds-eyed view map of our Alexandra Park location, whilst Chris and I went into the editing suit to listen to our music choices. We came up with a shortlist of 4 possible music pieces, each from the CD albums that Chris and Josh found at home and brought in. We listened to the sound effect tracks and decided that the gunshots would be useful, but the footsteps didn't sound very realistic so we would try and record our own on the day.

Synopsis and Film noir treatment for my individual film noir

Synopsis
A man who was supposed to be involved in a bank robbery with his friend decides to give up on his friends half way through the robbery and leaves them there. Two of his friends get caught and end up in jail while one of his friends managed to escape and now the friend is searching for him to get his revenge of the man changing his mind. The man ends up going to a different state far away from his friend so he thinks. The man meets a woman who persuades him to turn himself in but what the man doesn’t know is that this woman is working for his friend so that his friend can catch him and end up killing him. At the end his friend ends up in jail for attempted murder towards him but the man does not end up in jail as there is no proof that he was in this bank robbery.
Synopsis for opening of film noir
The beginning shows a man in a room sitting on the bed drinking some whisky then you hear his voice over ‘Why did I have to walk out I could be so much happier if I had stayed’. Then you hear police sirens for about five seconds. He stands up and stares at himself in the mirror. When a beautiful woman walks in and tells him ‘Turn yourself in you have no life here wouldn’t you better off in your own state I do the police even no you did it. Then shot back to the man looking depressed and then the Venetian blind effect on him.
Editing
In the beginning this movie starts half way through so you think about what is this man depressed about and what is the woman talking about.
Cinematography
The Venetian blind effect goes across the man when he is staring at himself in the mirror. Many of the shots i will be using will be medium or extreme close ups to show the depression of this man. But the only two different shot that i would use is when we first see him we open to a wide shot so we know where he is then when the woman walks into the room to show her dominance across this room and him.
M-E-S
The location I plan is in a hotel room the only light you have is coming from the window. A prop is the glass of scotch because we can see that he is worrying about something. The mirror as well is a prop because when he looks at himself it shows his depression.
Sound
In this movie you have a voice over of what the man is thinking also after you have heard his thinking you hear police sirens. In the very beginning when you see the man sitting on the bed cars down on the street so you know that you are in a big city.

I choose this storyline because it is like a typical film noir storyline, for instance someone running away from the problems then also there is a femfatale which is in most film noirs.

Analysis of Catch me if you can opening squence

The titles in this video are mysterious as you never see the person’s faces so in a way it holds in the audience because if they have never seen what Leonardo Dicaprio looks like they would stay and wait as they have seen his name in the titles. Also these titles are telling the story of the whole film but not the ending. The way that the music is in time with the silhouette characters on the screen is quite clever in the way that it is more quick when the silhouette are trying to chase him, to make the audience have the feeling of being chased.

It is all shot on a wide shot so you can see the exterior backgrounds of where the boy has managed to escape the police. But as soon as he realises he is on the run they cut to close up to give the more petrified feeling to the audience as they can’t show his expressions. Also the way that they have mad the man catching him to be a bigger silhouette than the boy shows that he is more and power and is probably going to catch him. Also how the boy is portrayed as small to other people as well while he should be the same height as he gets rich. He does this because maybe the boy feels insure about himself.

The way that they don’t show the different locations but what they show are little props that make you realise where you are for instance they show an arrow on a sign pointing we kind of get the clue that it is in an airport or a train station. The costumes you use to shows where this boy is as once he is an airplane pilot then you see him in a doctors coat it shows where has been. The way that the police has light on him where his eyes are and on his suit shows him as a good guy. While they boy is all in dark which sort of shows him as an evil side and the audience should not trust him.

As there is no dialogue they can not show the feelings of the characters so they use music to bring in how they feel. For instance when the boy is feeling threatened by the policeman it speeds up more as he feels more nervous and that is how the music sounds like. Also because the music changes from slow to fast it makes the audience pay more attention as it is not mellow music that has no interest to it. At the end it sounds like a whirling kind of music that goes down which sounds like the boy is caught and it is all over.

This opening sequence has influenced my film noir thriller opening by the fact a lot of our opening is some one running from something and also there is a silhouette that is following him where he goes. This gives me ideas for music that we could use for our running scenes as it is the same in our opening sequence as the man is running away from something.

Analysis of The beginning of Double Indeminity (a Classic film noir-1944)

What makes a good opening squence?
Cinematography must have interesting shots and always try to capture the auidence.
The narrative must be interesting and must try and be an enigma, it 'hooks' the auidence in.
The sound can try and have dialogue aThe nd music(the music is very important).
M-E-S the location where the character in must make you think why are there and such like and their costumes and props etc.
The editing must have good titles that go with the movie eg. Red titles in a horror movie.
Also it must have genre characteristics eg. In a horror there it must scary not romantic.

Plot
Walter Neff is a successful insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk returning to his office building in downtown Los Angeles late one night. Neff, clearly in pain, sits down at his desk and tells the whole story into a Dictaphone for his colleague Barton Keyes, a claims adjuster. It is the story of how he meets the sultry Phyllis Dietrichson during a routine house call to renew an automobile insurance policy for her husband. A flirtation develops, at least until Neff hears Phyllis wonder how she could take out a policy on her husband's life without him knowing it. Neff knows she means murder and wants no part of it.

Using ECMS I shall analyses this film but only from 2.21 to 5.44 in the video.

This film does not have too much editing that I could spot all I found was at the end of this scene there is a flashback but apart from that they didn’t edit anything because they want to build up the tension of when he walks into his office room and sits down so you are wondering what is a matter with this man.

When the man walks into his office and goes to sit down the director uses the Venetian blind affect but not on his face on his body. Because of this you can not see the man’s face so it makes him appear like a dark shadow that has done something illegal.
The man sits down at his desk they do this shot with a mid long shop so you can see exactly what he is doing like taking out a cigarette also it shows the atmosphere of the room so that you see he is a powerful man in because of the fact he has his own office and not sharing it with anyone we know that the man was successful. When the man goes to the telephone the shot changes to medium close up and this enables you to see the expressions on his face when he makes this phone call also you can see him sweating and the light on his face to emphasizes his sweating.

The setting in this film is in Las Vegas so that starts us of knowing that he is in a big city were lots of crime happens. He walks in to what we assume is a warehouse or factory as when he enters the factory he looks down to see a lot of desks and people working there. Some props used in this film is the telephone I think they do this because it is easier for the man to confess what he has done over a telephone than face to face at the police station even though he is given all of his information like he was in a police station. He walks into the room and sits down to his desks and when he takes out the packet of cigarettes we can see how stressed he is because he can not even face to take his hand and pull one out like he is in shock also many people like to have cigarettes when they are stressed out.Also the room is a prop because this shows that he is a powerful man as he has his own office.

From when this man is walking into the room it has music this kind of music is sort of mysterious in a way but at the same time relaxing. They do this so that you think that this is just an ordinary man going to work. The director also tries to enforces everything that man does with a sound to show how quite it is as he is all alone in his office. The man’s voice as well goes with his expressions his voice is dull and never changes like he is not scared of anything and he is more in shock.

Evaluation of my exchange exercise

I filmed this exercise about three weeks ago with two other people. This exercise was supposed to bring in some film noir characteristics. I think that I did fine in this piece but to be honest I didn’t get that much of a chance to do a lot of shooting neither editing.

Altogether I think that the editing was not that bad it stuck together but one thing went wrong as it takes a long time to pass the envelope, it takes a long time for the other person to collect the envelope and we could of could of cut that shorter to look better.

The shots were very good, when we were shooting this we did a lot of shooting and we explored a lot of different shots (Long shot, low-angle shot). I think that though that we could of added more close up of faces because this shows the expression of people which would of been more realistic like film noir shots.

We went well with the costumes for instance we had long overcoats and that is what a lot of film noir go with. The location was good as this was just an average location that it is like an everyday location and in film noir’s a lot of things happen in everyday location.

The sound went well we had taken this music from the film noir D.O.A. It goes well with the fact it is very suspicious but also keeps you up beat with the sequence. But from other member’s of my class 50% said it was confusing as they were not sure as it would go with this shooting, but some say it did, it was a split decision.

The rule of thirds again we did the same problem as it was better but still it had too much wasted space, but the eye line was fine better than before. We were almost about to cross the 180 degree line rule because when I come towards the camera I do not work straight towards it I angled off. We finally fixed handles and we had no problems editing this time.

In conclusion I think that I didn’t produce a rubbish piece of work but the camera skills are getting better than the other two exercises I have done. But practice makes perfect and hopefully by my next exercise (Film noir opening) I must take all of these things more into concentration.

Evaluation of my preliminary exercise.

I think that some of my work in this project was bad; in the way that the shots that i used (over the shoulder shot) was not as good as my partner because you don't actually see the other person shoulder near the camera. I think I need more coverage also. For my next exercise(The exchange) I think I need to improve just get more handles in.

Some of the Editing wasn't good but a few minor things such as the boy walks in and leaves the door open but when you see him sitting down it's closed. That's something that next time i have to make more attention to small things. Also I didn't leave no handles and this made it very hard to edit

I think that the sound of when the boy opens the door and everything was fine but the dialogue is hard to hear.

I have to improve 'The Rule of Thirds.' because in the frame i need more looking space for the actors and also I need to put the actor's along the axis, as this makes this more interesting than the actor being bang in the middle.

Another thing to improve is 'Framing' becuase like i said in 'The Rule of Thirds' I need more looking space but also I have alot of unwanted space in the frame so I think that the next exercise I do, i should zoom closer or place the camera agaisnt a white or dull background.

I think that altogether my preliminary exercise was good because of the fact that I have only done one other shooting which was just practicing different shots. So this wasn't so bad but I few things i need to focus on before my next exercise and also my major finished exercise which is The open to a film noir thriller.

I have learnt from this exercise how to edit but that is only because this is the first time I have edited. Also I think that by my next exercise if I ever use an over the shoulder shot I actually have to put in the shoulder because sometimes in this exercise you see a shoulder and then sometimes you don't see it. Also by my next exercise I have to remember my framing as there is a lot of unwanted space that is not important for the video.

Characteristics of Film noir

Many storylines have an emphasis of moral ambiguity and sexual motivation such as a strong dominant but seductive woman and makes the man do what she wants.
You have the typical strong dominant but beautiful seductive woman. The men are normally ordinary people who get wrapped in with the woman’s evilness and he eventually ends up to his downfall.
They are set in locations such as dark streets, hotel rooms of big cities or abandoned warehouses.
They focus on expressionistic lighting and circling cigarette smoke.
The actors seem mysterious you have to pick up what job they have or anything else as most likely it will be used later in the film.
You would have voiceovers of what the man/woman would be thinking of a person or their confessions. They have loud mysteries music to keep you knowing that something bad will happen and keep you paying attention to the film.

The shadows of Venetian blinds cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are a typical visual in film noir. Film noir is also known for its use of Dutch Angle, and low angle shots and lenses.
They have jarring editing as well as flashbacks to remind were the person is.
Also they a lot of the movies start the movie at the end instead of the begin and then you hear the story from the person who telling point of view of what happened.

Three Classic Film noir's

Touch of Evil, 1958, Orson Welles.
A car blows up as it crosses the Mexican border into the USA. A high ranking Chief Officer is with his wife and he is brought into this investigation as a Mexican resident is been accused. The Chief Officer has to blame a drug lord who has already been tracking him and is trying to scare his wife and the Officer off the case.
In this film noir they use the Venetian blinds affect for lighting. As it is set in Mexico we assume it’s in a city were a lot of crime happens and because someone is following them no one(the police) would really care as it happens all the time in the city. So it shows in this film that you’re always on your own.

Strangers on a Train, 1951, Alfred Hitchcock.
A tennis Star meets a stranger on a train who offers a deal with him if the stranger kills the tennis stars wife if the tennis star kills the stranger’s father. The tennis star doesn’t take him seriously but his wife ends up dead and the tennis star become the main suspect and this effectively ruins his tennis career and his life.
Many noirs are like this one as it shows a man has got everything has dreamed of but does one accidentally thing wrong and ends up as a suspect even though he is innocent and his whole life is doomed.
The fact they are on a train as well is kind of film noir as there are dark bit to a train as when you go through a tunnel and the fact that they are alone and secluded so no one else can know what they are talking about so no one can pass the blame to this stranger.

Kiss of Death, 1947, Henry Hathaway
A crook gets caught in a jewel heist and he refuses to rat on his partners and goes to jail, assured that his wife and children will be taken care of. But his wife has killed herself. Then he tells the police on his ex-pals and is paroled. Remarries gets a job and begins leading a happy life when he learns one of the men he informed on, killer has been released from custody and is out for revenge against the crook and his family.
Many noir movies have people who are trying to run or hide from someone like this movie. I think that the music in this would be very dramatic because this movie is trying to keep you watching as it doesn’t start from the end so they have to put something to catch your attention.

Three examples Contemporary film noirs

Sin City, 2005, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.
Different stories that are based in Basin City which is heavily invested with crime. A man is seeking the murderer of a beautiful woman who was asleep in bed with. Also another man accidentally kills a hero cop and tries to cover it up.
And a man who is a policeman but is about to retire is committing a crime he didn’t commit.
Many noirs happen in big cities that are with crime like this neo noir. Also some noirs have men who have not committed a crime but happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time like this neo-noir.

Momento, 2000, Christopher Nolan
A man who is suffering from short term memory loss is out to avenge his wife’s murder. But because he has sort term memory loss it’s hard for him to remember so in this movie it shows flashbacks of what has happened to him.
Just like film noir this movie offers flashbacks so you have to keep wondering what he did in the past that had to affect him in the future.

The last seduction, 1994, John Dahl
A woman who is a seductive and beautiful persuades her husband to sell medicinal cocaine to some drug dealers. She then leaves him with the money then her husband has to pay off debts so he keeps sending detectives to go and find her.
This is a perfect example of the women in film noir’s they persuade the men to do anything and then they leave and leave them man in ruins.